Most of us will have kept a diary at some point during our lives, and of course this year marks the 350th anniversary of the beginning of Samuel Pepys’s famous diary. Personal diaries are fascinating records, an opportunity to enter the private worlds of individuals, however exciting, complex or mundane. Each tells the story of a person’s life as it unfolds, revealing their intimate thoughts as well as being a record of daily events.
The Kyffin Williams Archive includes forty-one volumes of engagement diaries, mostly pocket diaries, compiled between 1939 and 2006. These contain brief, occasional entries with additional notes, poems and sketches by Kyffin.
However, it’s Kyffin’s journals, which date from 1990 to the beginning of 2001, which are sure to arouse the most interest. The fourteen volumes of desk diaries contain detailed accounts of his daily activities and thoughts, including descriptions of locations he’s sketched and the process of painting in his studio, giving us a fascinating glimpse into the life and mind of this remarkable artist. In fact the entries are so comprehensive some continue in additional writing pads!
On 9 February 1990, twenty years ago to this day, Kyffin writes
“The willows are showing life after a winter sleep & the Mallard in the harbour have paired. Somehow spring is around the corner but snow is forecast for the weekend. To Caernarfon to buy sketch books & a firmer brush for my oils . . . watched a total eclipse of the moon. It was supposed to be blood red at its totality but it just looked dirty.”
These journals have recently be digitised and will soon be available for all to see. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I have!
Sian Bowyer